This trail looked sooo promising. But, the border with Lebanon is not a benign boundary. Almost every minute on these Upper Galilee trails brought fresh, exciting butterflies. The temptation to think like a teenager quickly teased my thinking, i.e., What can really happen if I go some 200 feet past this Warning sign? Well, among other possibilities, violating this warning, and seeing a rare butterfly on that March 2015 day, could lead me a few steps off trail, to . . . a land mine! Or a kidnapping into the hands of Hezbollah. What’s a grown-up kid from Pittsburgh, ne’ Brooklyn worth? Brings to mind the Ransom of Red Chief, ’cause I’d be a lousy hostage.

I didn’t go past it. I’d been shooting butterflies since I arrived in the area, and had done well, with lots of images of those Protected Israeli Parnassians, Allancastria Cerisyi Speciosa.

Truth be told, I don’t speed, avoid narrow mountain roads, and am wise enough to stop at border signs, warning that a hot border is just ahead. Some butterflies live a charmed life, flying at belligerent borders and not seeing hikers or photographers, ever.

Jeff